Being stripped of your pants and your dignity to be accepted into a group… is this what it means to be a Catamount?

This kind of behavior is simply intolerable.

Four of the upperclassmen in charge of the “event” will now lose some playing time, along with participation in community service and hazing education.

Yes, these consequences are a step in the right direction; but there needs to a larger discussion that results from this series of events.

UVM should know hazing is, unfortunately, a common occurrence in a college setting. The faculty, athletic faculty in particular, should know the irreversible repercussions of hazing and therefore ought to take action before it’s too late.

It must be made known that these actions are intolerable.

Official University-endorsed groups as large and emblematic as the UVM hockey team must know the lasting ramifications of hazing and should be educated on the gravity of it.

It’s not just about tarnishing the University’s name, but also permanently damaging the students who joined and endured this sort of inhumane treatment likely because they just wanted to finally feel part of a community.

We must take a stand against this systematic bullying. Everyone’s trying to find their place in college. No one should have to suffer through an “initiation” process to fit in.